


Let It Rot

by LadyBrooke



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Angst, Gen, Politics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-03
Updated: 2014-06-03
Packaged: 2018-02-03 05:41:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1733147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyBrooke/pseuds/LadyBrooke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the First Kinslaying, Finarfin tries to convince Nerdanel to go to Formenos and live there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let It Rot

“Please do not give it to me,” Nerdanel said. “Please, Arafinwë. I do not want it.”

“But it was your husband’s home,” he replied.

She shook her head. “And your father’s last home and where he died, but I don’t see you using it as the summer vacation spot for the royal household. I do not want it. Let it sit and the furnishings rot and ivory grow over the walls until no one can see Formenos anymore for the trees. I do not care.”

“You say that, but two hundred years from now, when you realize that Makalaurë’s last composition on these shores was left in his bedroom, or the Ambarussa’s practice bow in the hallway, what then? What will you think?”

“I already went back once for you, because you said it was unsuitable for the High-King of the Noldor in Valinor to go looking through the betrayer’s household like a common servant, even if he was the betrayer’s half-brother, the betrayer had been the heir to the throne, and the King’s father had spent the last portion of his life there. I searched even though my husband had just left and taken my children. I found everything you wanted - your father’s possessions and notes, my husband’s notes, and I brought it all to you even though everyone either pitied me or hated me for not restraining him from everything he did.” She was shaking as she finished speaking. “Will you really try to make me return there again, instead of letting it sit abandoned?”

Arafinwë raised his arm up and almost put it around her shoulder, before pulling back. “It was your home.”

“It was Fëanáro’s home! It was his home, his and ours sons. It was never mine, and it can never be mine. Even if I tried to reclaim it, who would come? Your father died there. Indis wouldn’t come visit me. Anairë would never come, because Námo promised her that when Nolofinwë and their children were released, they would be released here. You would leave me alone, because of your father’s actions. You know the only reason you want me to go live there is because they whisper the same rumors about him that they did about Míriel.”

“I wish you to go, because it is your home.” He seemed less convinced of it as he repeated himself.

She laughed. “My problem. It’s always my problem when your family has issues. And you all always have issues, because none of you have ever known how to be good fathers, have you?”

He gritted his teeth before smiling at her. “Perhaps not your husband, but my father, brother and I were always good fathers.”

Nerdanel smiled back. “But Arafinwë, if you and I were good parents, why did our children forsake us to leave with my husband and your brother?”

Formenos was left to rot.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a contest over on dA, dealing with the theme of betrayal, among other things. 
> 
> I do find Finarfin and Nerdanel fun to write together, because they're really the two closest - in terms of family relationships - people left in Valinor to Fëanor.


End file.
